SummaryPolar materials, such as piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics are essential to our modern life, yet they are mostly developed by trial-and-error. Their properties overwhelmingly depend on the defects within them, the majority of which are hidden in the bulk. The road to better materials is via mapping these defects, but our best tool for it – piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) – is limited to surfaces. 3D-PXM aims to revolutionize our understanding by measuring the local structure-property correlations around individual defects buried deep in the bulk.
This is a completely new kind of microscopy enabling 3D maps of local strain and polarization (i.e. piezoresponse) with 10 nm resolution in mm-sized samples. It is novel, multi-scale and fast enough to capture defect dynamics in real time. Uniquely, it is a full-field method that uses a synthetic-aperture approach to improve both resolution and recover the image phase. This phase is then quantitatively correlated to local polarization and strain via a forward model. 3D-PXM combines advances in X-Ray optics, phase recovery and data analysis to create something transformative. In principle, it can achieve spatial resolution comparable to the best coherent X-Ray microscopy methods while being faster, used on larger samples, and without risk of radiation damage.
For the first time, this opens the door to solving how defects influence bulk properties under real-life conditions. 3D-PXM focuses on three types of defects prevalent in polar materials: grain boundaries, dislocations and polar nanoregions. Individually they address major gaps in the state-of-the-art, while together making great strides towards fully understanding defects. This understanding is expected to inform a new generation of multi-scale models that can account for a material’s full heterogeneity. These models are the first step towards abandoning our tradition of trial-and-error, and with this comes the potential for a new era of polar materials.

Polar materials, such as piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics are essential to our modern life, yet they are mostly developed by trial-and-error. Their properties overwhelmingly depend on the defects within them, the majority of which are hidden in the bulk. The road to better materials is via mapping these defects, but our best tool for it – piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) – is limited to surfaces. 3D-PXM aims to revolutionize our understanding by measuring the local structure-property correlations around individual defects buried deep in the bulk.
This is a completely new kind of microscopy enabling 3D maps of local strain and polarization (i.e. piezoresponse) with 10 nm resolution in mm-sized samples. It is novel, multi-scale and fast enough to capture defect dynamics in real time. Uniquely, it is a full-field method that uses a synthetic-aperture approach to improve both resolution and recover the image phase. This phase is then quantitatively correlated to local polarization and strain via a forward model. 3D-PXM combines advances in X-Ray optics, phase recovery and data analysis to create something transformative. In principle, it can achieve spatial resolution comparable to the best coherent X-Ray microscopy methods while being faster, used on larger samples, and without risk of radiation damage.
For the first time, this opens the door to solving how defects influence bulk properties under real-life conditions. 3D-PXM focuses on three types of defects prevalent in polar materials: grain boundaries, dislocations and polar nanoregions. Individually they address major gaps in the state-of-the-art, while together making great strides towards fully understanding defects. This understanding is expected to inform a new generation of multi-scale models that can account for a material’s full heterogeneity. These models are the first step towards abandoning our tradition of trial-and-error, and with this comes the potential for a new era of polar materials.

Max ERC Funding

1 496 941 €

Duration

Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31

Project acronymAgeConsolidate

ProjectThe Missing Link of Episodic Memory Decline in Aging: The Role of Inefficient Systems Consolidation

Researcher (PI)Anders Martin FJELL

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSITETET I OSLO

Call DetailsConsolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2016-COG

SummaryWhich brain mechanisms are responsible for the faith of the memories we make with age, whether they wither or stay, and in what form? Episodic memory function does decline with age. While this decline can have multiple causes, research has focused almost entirely on encoding and retrieval processes, largely ignoring a third critical process– consolidation. The objective of AgeConsolidate is to provide this missing link, by combining novel experimental cognitive paradigms with neuroimaging in a longitudinal large-scale attempt to directly test how age-related changes in consolidation processes in the brain impact episodic memory decline. The ambitious aims of the present proposal are two-fold:
(1) Use recent advances in memory consolidation theory to achieve an elaborate model of episodic memory deficits in aging
(2) Use aging as a model to uncover how structural and functional brain changes affect episodic memory consolidation in general
The novelty of the project lies in the synthesis of recent methodological advances and theoretical models for episodic memory consolidation to explain age-related decline, by employing a unique combination of a range of different techniques and approaches. This is ground-breaking, in that it aims at taking our understanding of the brain processes underlying episodic memory decline in aging to a new level, while at the same time advancing our theoretical understanding of how episodic memories are consolidated in the human brain. To obtain this outcome, I will test the main hypothesis of the project: Brain processes of episodic memory consolidation are less effective in older adults, and this can account for a significant portion of the episodic memory decline in aging. This will be answered by six secondary hypotheses, with 1-3 experiments or tasks designated to address each hypothesis, focusing on functional and structural MRI, positron emission tomography data and sleep experiments to target consolidation from different angles.

Which brain mechanisms are responsible for the faith of the memories we make with age, whether they wither or stay, and in what form? Episodic memory function does decline with age. While this decline can have multiple causes, research has focused almost entirely on encoding and retrieval processes, largely ignoring a third critical process– consolidation. The objective of AgeConsolidate is to provide this missing link, by combining novel experimental cognitive paradigms with neuroimaging in a longitudinal large-scale attempt to directly test how age-related changes in consolidation processes in the brain impact episodic memory decline. The ambitious aims of the present proposal are two-fold:
(1) Use recent advances in memory consolidation theory to achieve an elaborate model of episodic memory deficits in aging
(2) Use aging as a model to uncover how structural and functional brain changes affect episodic memory consolidation in general
The novelty of the project lies in the synthesis of recent methodological advances and theoretical models for episodic memory consolidation to explain age-related decline, by employing a unique combination of a range of different techniques and approaches. This is ground-breaking, in that it aims at taking our understanding of the brain processes underlying episodic memory decline in aging to a new level, while at the same time advancing our theoretical understanding of how episodic memories are consolidated in the human brain. To obtain this outcome, I will test the main hypothesis of the project: Brain processes of episodic memory consolidation are less effective in older adults, and this can account for a significant portion of the episodic memory decline in aging. This will be answered by six secondary hypotheses, with 1-3 experiments or tasks designated to address each hypothesis, focusing on functional and structural MRI, positron emission tomography data and sleep experiments to target consolidation from different angles.

Max ERC Funding

1 999 482 €

Duration

Start date: 2017-05-01, End date: 2022-04-30

Project acronymAPOCRYPHA

ProjectStoryworlds in Transition: Coptic Apocrypha in Changing Contexts in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods

Researcher (PI)Hugo Lundhaug

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSITETET I OSLO

Call DetailsConsolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2019-COG

SummaryThis project proposes the first systematic study of Coptic apocrypha covering the entire timespan of Coptic literary production, and it aims to do so with unprecedented methodological sophistication. Apocrypha is here defined as (1) texts and traditions that develop or expand upon characters and events of the biblical storyworld; (2) and/or contain a claim to authorship by a character from that storyworld or a direct witness to it. A great number of such apocryphal texts and traditions has been preserved in Coptic manuscripts from the fourth to the twelfth centuries. Most of these texts are attributed to apostles or other important early Christian figures, and over time such materials were also increasingly embedded in pseudepigraphical frames, such as in homilies attributed to later, but still early, heroes of the Church. The manuscripts in which this literature has been preserved were almost exclusively produced and used in Egyptian monasteries. Although the use of such apocrypha were at times controversial, the evidence clearly indicates the widespread use of such literature in Coptic monasteries over centuries, and this project will investigate the contents, development, and functions of apocrypha over time, as they were copied, adapted, and used in changing socio-religious contexts over time. The period covered by the project saw drastic changes in the religious landscape of Egypt, from its Christianity having a dominant position in the fourth century, through the marginalization of Egyptian Christianity in relation to the imperial Chalcedonian Church after 451, to a period of increasing marginalization in relation to Islam following the Arab conquest of Egypt in the mid-seventh century. The project will investigate how these changing contexts are reflected in the Coptic apocrypha that were copied and used in Egyptian monasteries, and what functions they had for their users throughout the period under investigation.

This project proposes the first systematic study of Coptic apocrypha covering the entire timespan of Coptic literary production, and it aims to do so with unprecedented methodological sophistication. Apocrypha is here defined as (1) texts and traditions that develop or expand upon characters and events of the biblical storyworld; (2) and/or contain a claim to authorship by a character from that storyworld or a direct witness to it. A great number of such apocryphal texts and traditions has been preserved in Coptic manuscripts from the fourth to the twelfth centuries. Most of these texts are attributed to apostles or other important early Christian figures, and over time such materials were also increasingly embedded in pseudepigraphical frames, such as in homilies attributed to later, but still early, heroes of the Church. The manuscripts in which this literature has been preserved were almost exclusively produced and used in Egyptian monasteries. Although the use of such apocrypha were at times controversial, the evidence clearly indicates the widespread use of such literature in Coptic monasteries over centuries, and this project will investigate the contents, development, and functions of apocrypha over time, as they were copied, adapted, and used in changing socio-religious contexts over time. The period covered by the project saw drastic changes in the religious landscape of Egypt, from its Christianity having a dominant position in the fourth century, through the marginalization of Egyptian Christianity in relation to the imperial Chalcedonian Church after 451, to a period of increasing marginalization in relation to Islam following the Arab conquest of Egypt in the mid-seventh century. The project will investigate how these changing contexts are reflected in the Coptic apocrypha that were copied and used in Egyptian monasteries, and what functions they had for their users throughout the period under investigation.

SummaryInterfaces in oxide materials offer amazing opportunities for fundamental and applied research, giving a new dimension to functional properties, such as magnetism, multiferroicity and superconductivity. Ferroelectric domain walls recently emerged as a new type of interface, where the dynamic characteristics of ferroelectricity introduce the element of spatial mobility, allowing for the real-time adjustment of position, density and orientation of the walls. This mobility adds an additional degree of flexibility that enables domain walls to take an active role in future devices and hold great potential as functional 2D systems for electronics.
Up to now, application concepts rely on injecting and deleting domain walls in micrometer-size devices to control electric conductivity. While this approach achieves a step beyond conventional interfaces by utilizing the wall mobility, it does not break the mould of classical device architectures. Completely new strategies are required to functionalize the versatile electronic properties and atomic-scale feature size of ferroelectric domain walls.
ATRONICS will establish a new conceptual approach for developing domain-wall-based technology. At the length scale of only a few atoms, we will use individual walls in improper ferroelectrics to emulate key electronic components such as diodes, transistors and logic gates. Crucially, as the functionality of the components is intrinsic to the domain walls, the walls themselves are the devices, instead of the previous approach of writing and erasing domain walls within a much larger classical device architecture. Beyond demonstrating individual devices, we will integrate multiple domain-wall devices, and develop quasi-2D circuitry and networks with a higher order of complexity then is currently achievable. ATRONICS will represent a major advancement in 2D functional materials for future technologies and play an essential role in the transition from nano- to atomic-scale electronics.

Interfaces in oxide materials offer amazing opportunities for fundamental and applied research, giving a new dimension to functional properties, such as magnetism, multiferroicity and superconductivity. Ferroelectric domain walls recently emerged as a new type of interface, where the dynamic characteristics of ferroelectricity introduce the element of spatial mobility, allowing for the real-time adjustment of position, density and orientation of the walls. This mobility adds an additional degree of flexibility that enables domain walls to take an active role in future devices and hold great potential as functional 2D systems for electronics.
Up to now, application concepts rely on injecting and deleting domain walls in micrometer-size devices to control electric conductivity. While this approach achieves a step beyond conventional interfaces by utilizing the wall mobility, it does not break the mould of classical device architectures. Completely new strategies are required to functionalize the versatile electronic properties and atomic-scale feature size of ferroelectric domain walls.
ATRONICS will establish a new conceptual approach for developing domain-wall-based technology. At the length scale of only a few atoms, we will use individual walls in improper ferroelectrics to emulate key electronic components such as diodes, transistors and logic gates. Crucially, as the functionality of the components is intrinsic to the domain walls, the walls themselves are the devices, instead of the previous approach of writing and erasing domain walls within a much larger classical device architecture. Beyond demonstrating individual devices, we will integrate multiple domain-wall devices, and develop quasi-2D circuitry and networks with a higher order of complexity then is currently achievable. ATRONICS will represent a major advancement in 2D functional materials for future technologies and play an essential role in the transition from nano- to atomic-scale electronics.

Max ERC Funding

1 845 338 €

Duration

Start date: 2020-09-01, End date: 2025-08-31

Project acronymBlackBox

ProjectA collaborative platform to document performance composition: from conceptual structures in the backstage to customizable visualizations in the front-end

SummaryThe global performing arts community is requiring innovative systems to: a) document, transmit and preserve the knowledge contained in choreographic-dramaturgic practices; b) assist artists with tools to facilitate their compositional processes, preferably on a collaborative basis. The existing digital archives of performing arts mostly function as conventional e-libraries, not allowing higher degrees of interactivity or active user intervention. They rarely contemplate accessible video annotation tools or provide relational querying functionalities based on artist-driven conceptual principles or idiosyncratic ontologies.
This proposal endeavours to fill that gap and create a new paradigm for the documentation of performance composition. It aims at the analysis of artists’ unique conceptual structures, by combining the empirical insights of contemporary creators with research theories from Multimodal Communication and Digital Media studies. The challenge is to design a model for a web-based collaborative platform enabling both a robust representation of performance composition methods and novel visualization technologies to support it. This can be done by analysing recurring body movement patterns and by fostering online contributions of users (a.o. performers and researchers) to the multimodal annotations stored in the platform. To accomplish this goal, two subjacent components must be developed: 1. the production of a video annotation-tool to allow artists in rehearsal periods to take notes over video in real-time and share them via the collaborative platform; 2. the linguistic analysis of a corpus of invited artists’ multimodal materials as source for the extraction of indicative conceptual structures, which will guide the architectural logics and interface design of the collaborative platform software.The outputs of these two components will generate critical case-studies to help understanding the human mind when engaged in cultural production processes.

The global performing arts community is requiring innovative systems to: a) document, transmit and preserve the knowledge contained in choreographic-dramaturgic practices; b) assist artists with tools to facilitate their compositional processes, preferably on a collaborative basis. The existing digital archives of performing arts mostly function as conventional e-libraries, not allowing higher degrees of interactivity or active user intervention. They rarely contemplate accessible video annotation tools or provide relational querying functionalities based on artist-driven conceptual principles or idiosyncratic ontologies.
This proposal endeavours to fill that gap and create a new paradigm for the documentation of performance composition. It aims at the analysis of artists’ unique conceptual structures, by combining the empirical insights of contemporary creators with research theories from Multimodal Communication and Digital Media studies. The challenge is to design a model for a web-based collaborative platform enabling both a robust representation of performance composition methods and novel visualization technologies to support it. This can be done by analysing recurring body movement patterns and by fostering online contributions of users (a.o. performers and researchers) to the multimodal annotations stored in the platform. To accomplish this goal, two subjacent components must be developed: 1. the production of a video annotation-tool to allow artists in rehearsal periods to take notes over video in real-time and share them via the collaborative platform; 2. the linguistic analysis of a corpus of invited artists’ multimodal materials as source for the extraction of indicative conceptual structures, which will guide the architectural logics and interface design of the collaborative platform software.The outputs of these two components will generate critical case-studies to help understanding the human mind when engaged in cultural production processes.

Max ERC Funding

1 378 200 €

Duration

Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30

Project acronymBRAINMINT

ProjectBrains and minds in transition: The dark side of neuroplasticity during sensitive life phases

Researcher (PI)Lars T. WESTLYE

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSITETET I OSLO

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG

SummaryThe potential and boundaries of the human mind is determined by dynamic interactions between the environment and the individual genetic architecture. However, despite several breakthroughs, the genetic revolution has not provided a coherent account of the development of the mind and its disorders, and the missing heritability is large across human traits. One explanation of this impasse is the complexity of the gene-environment interactions. Current knowledge about the determinants of a healthy mind is largely based on studies whose modus operandi is to treat the environment as a static entity, neglecting to consider the crucial fact that environmental inputs and their genetic interactions vary dramatically between life phases.
The objective of BRAINMINT is to provide this missing link by zeroing in on two major life transitions, namely adolescence and pregnancy. These phases are characterized by temporarily increased brain plasticity, offering windows for adaptation and growth, but also host the emergence of common mental disorders. I propose that a multi-level investigation with this dark side of brain plasticity as the axis mundi will add a mechanistic understanding of this link between growth and vulnerability. I will test the main hypothesis that mechanisms that boost neuroplasticity promote adaptation to a dynamic environment, but at the cost of increased risk of psychopathology if exposed to a combination of genetic and environmental triggers. To this end I will utilize cutting-edge longitudinal brain imaging, electrophysiology, rich cognitive and clinical data, immune markers, gene expression and genetics. I will leverage on massive imaging data (n>40,000) and novel tools to increase power and generalizability and improve brain- and gene-based predictions of complex traits. Aiming to help resolving one of the modern day enigmas, BRAINMINT is a pioneering and high risk/high gain effort to find mechanisms of brain plasticity that support and harm the brain.

The potential and boundaries of the human mind is determined by dynamic interactions between the environment and the individual genetic architecture. However, despite several breakthroughs, the genetic revolution has not provided a coherent account of the development of the mind and its disorders, and the missing heritability is large across human traits. One explanation of this impasse is the complexity of the gene-environment interactions. Current knowledge about the determinants of a healthy mind is largely based on studies whose modus operandi is to treat the environment as a static entity, neglecting to consider the crucial fact that environmental inputs and their genetic interactions vary dramatically between life phases.
The objective of BRAINMINT is to provide this missing link by zeroing in on two major life transitions, namely adolescence and pregnancy. These phases are characterized by temporarily increased brain plasticity, offering windows for adaptation and growth, but also host the emergence of common mental disorders. I propose that a multi-level investigation with this dark side of brain plasticity as the axis mundi will add a mechanistic understanding of this link between growth and vulnerability. I will test the main hypothesis that mechanisms that boost neuroplasticity promote adaptation to a dynamic environment, but at the cost of increased risk of psychopathology if exposed to a combination of genetic and environmental triggers. To this end I will utilize cutting-edge longitudinal brain imaging, electrophysiology, rich cognitive and clinical data, immune markers, gene expression and genetics. I will leverage on massive imaging data (n>40,000) and novel tools to increase power and generalizability and improve brain- and gene-based predictions of complex traits. Aiming to help resolving one of the modern day enigmas, BRAINMINT is a pioneering and high risk/high gain effort to find mechanisms of brain plasticity that support and harm the brain.

Max ERC Funding

1 446 113 €

Duration

Start date: 2019-08-01, End date: 2024-07-31

Project acronymCAPSAHARA

ProjectCRITICAL APPROACHES TO POLITICS, SOCIAL ACTIVISM, AND ISLAMIC MILITANCY IN THE WESTERN SAHARAN REGION

Researcher (PI)Francisco Manuel Machado da Rosa da Silva Freire

Host Institution (HI)CENTRO EM REDE DE INVESTIGACAO EM ANTROPOLOGIA

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2016-STG

SummaryThis project proposes an analysis of the reconfigurations established in the socio-political vocabulary of the western Saharan region – southern Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania – from the “post-empire” to the contemporary period. The project should produce an analysis of 1) the social and political structures shared in the region, 2) the local variations of those structures, based on case studies, 3) their specific configurations, based on social markers such as gender, age, and class, 4) the use of those structures in different historical periods. All these will be under theoretical and ethnographic scrutiny in order to achieve its main goal: 5) to understand the recent articulation of the social and political structures of the Western Saharan region, with broader and often exogenous political vocabularies.
The methodology used in this project is based on readings associated with different social sciences, with a particular focus on anthropology, history, and political science. The members of the research team, with experience and linguistic competence in the different geographies involved in this project, are expected to conduct original field enquiries, enabling a significant enhancement of the theoretical and ethnographic knowledge associated with this region.
The project’s main goal is to analyse the types of interplay established between pre-modern socio-political traditions and contemporary political expression and activism, in a particularly sensitive – and academically disregarded – region. Its effort to integrate a context that is usually compartmentalized, as well as to put together a group of researchers generally “isolated” in their particular areas of expertise, geographies, or nations, should also be valued. The project’s results should enable the different contexts under study to be integrated into the wider maps of current scientific research, providing, at the same time a dissemination of its outputs to an extended audience.

This project proposes an analysis of the reconfigurations established in the socio-political vocabulary of the western Saharan region – southern Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania – from the “post-empire” to the contemporary period. The project should produce an analysis of 1) the social and political structures shared in the region, 2) the local variations of those structures, based on case studies, 3) their specific configurations, based on social markers such as gender, age, and class, 4) the use of those structures in different historical periods. All these will be under theoretical and ethnographic scrutiny in order to achieve its main goal: 5) to understand the recent articulation of the social and political structures of the Western Saharan region, with broader and often exogenous political vocabularies.
The methodology used in this project is based on readings associated with different social sciences, with a particular focus on anthropology, history, and political science. The members of the research team, with experience and linguistic competence in the different geographies involved in this project, are expected to conduct original field enquiries, enabling a significant enhancement of the theoretical and ethnographic knowledge associated with this region.
The project’s main goal is to analyse the types of interplay established between pre-modern socio-political traditions and contemporary political expression and activism, in a particularly sensitive – and academically disregarded – region. Its effort to integrate a context that is usually compartmentalized, as well as to put together a group of researchers generally “isolated” in their particular areas of expertise, geographies, or nations, should also be valued. The project’s results should enable the different contexts under study to be integrated into the wider maps of current scientific research, providing, at the same time a dissemination of its outputs to an extended audience.

Max ERC Funding

1 192 144 €

Duration

Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2021-03-31

Project acronymCLIC

ProjectClassical Influences and Irish Culture

Researcher (PI)Isabelle Torrance

Host Institution (HI)AARHUS UNIVERSITET

Call DetailsConsolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG

SummaryThe hypothesis of this project is that Ireland has a unique and hitherto underexplored history of cultural engagement with models from ancient Greece and Rome. Unlike Britain and mainland Europe, Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire. Yet the island has an extraordinarily vibrant tradition of classical learning that dates back to its earliest recorded literature, and is unparalleled in other northern European countries. Research for this project will address why this is the case, by examining sources through nine significant diachronic themes identified by the PI: language; land; travel and exile; Troy; satire; Neoplatonism; female voices; material culture; and global influence. This multi-thematic approach will enable analysis of what is remarkable about classical reception in Ireland. It will also provide a heuristic framework that generates dialogue between normally disparate fields, such as classical reception studies, Irish and British history, English-language literature, Irish-language literature, medieval studies, postcolonial studies, philosophy, material culture, women's studies, and global studies. The project will engage with contemporary preoccupations surrounding the politics and history of the divided island of Ireland, such as the current decade of centenary commemorations for the foundation of an independent Irish state (1912-1922, 2012-2022), and the on-going violence and political divisions in Northern Ireland. These issues will serve as a springboard for opening new avenues of investigation that look far beyond the past 100 years, but are linked to them. The project will thus shed new light on the role of classical culture in shaping literary, social, and political discourse across the island of Ireland, and throughout its history.

The hypothesis of this project is that Ireland has a unique and hitherto underexplored history of cultural engagement with models from ancient Greece and Rome. Unlike Britain and mainland Europe, Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire. Yet the island has an extraordinarily vibrant tradition of classical learning that dates back to its earliest recorded literature, and is unparalleled in other northern European countries. Research for this project will address why this is the case, by examining sources through nine significant diachronic themes identified by the PI: language; land; travel and exile; Troy; satire; Neoplatonism; female voices; material culture; and global influence. This multi-thematic approach will enable analysis of what is remarkable about classical reception in Ireland. It will also provide a heuristic framework that generates dialogue between normally disparate fields, such as classical reception studies, Irish and British history, English-language literature, Irish-language literature, medieval studies, postcolonial studies, philosophy, material culture, women's studies, and global studies. The project will engage with contemporary preoccupations surrounding the politics and history of the divided island of Ireland, such as the current decade of centenary commemorations for the foundation of an independent Irish state (1912-1922, 2012-2022), and the on-going violence and political divisions in Northern Ireland. These issues will serve as a springboard for opening new avenues of investigation that look far beyond the past 100 years, but are linked to them. The project will thus shed new light on the role of classical culture in shaping literary, social, and political discourse across the island of Ireland, and throughout its history.

Max ERC Funding

1 888 592 €

Duration

Start date: 2019-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30

Project acronymCOFUTURES

ProjectCoFutures: Pathways to Possible Presents

Researcher (PI)Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSITETET I OSLO

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2019-STG

SummaryThis project investigates future fictions from five distinct traditions: Afrofuturism, Sinofuturism, Arab/Gulf-futurism, Latin@futurism, and Indofuturism. All these fictions respond to the burning issues of the present, the transnational discourses of demographic change, climate change, and technological change, but they imagine different, localized ways of engaging with these transnational discourses.
Research Questions
What contributions can contemporary future fictions make to our understanding of global issues?
The project is split into three sub-questions to structure the enquiry:
1. What are the cultural and scientific bases for the development of different geography based future fictions?
2. What are the future changes – societal and technological – imagined in these future fictions?
3. How can we understand the response to global challenges – demographic change, climate change and technological change – in the local changes imagined in these futures?
Based on this, the project will develop a theory of “COFUTURES” (Co: Complex –Coexisting –Comparative).
Context
The project studies the recent proliferation of fiction based on ethnic, cultural, or national identity as take-off points for imagining possible futures even if their locations of production are globally spread. While many of these have older histories, these fictions have come together in this decade as alternative visions of the future that are resistant to perceived colonial or neo-colonial hegemony and are read as new forms of self-assertion. No methodologies have been developed to study all these together as shared phenomena, and no theories exist that can even make sense of them as similar yet distinct phenomena. There have also been no attempts to understand the specific sources for these futures in terms of the kinds of scientific and technological developments they project and the societal developments they imagine as localized responses to global challenges. This is the COFUTURES aim.

This project investigates future fictions from five distinct traditions: Afrofuturism, Sinofuturism, Arab/Gulf-futurism, Latin@futurism, and Indofuturism. All these fictions respond to the burning issues of the present, the transnational discourses of demographic change, climate change, and technological change, but they imagine different, localized ways of engaging with these transnational discourses.
Research Questions
What contributions can contemporary future fictions make to our understanding of global issues?
The project is split into three sub-questions to structure the enquiry:
1. What are the cultural and scientific bases for the development of different geography based future fictions?
2. What are the future changes – societal and technological – imagined in these future fictions?
3. How can we understand the response to global challenges – demographic change, climate change and technological change – in the local changes imagined in these futures?
Based on this, the project will develop a theory of “COFUTURES” (Co: Complex –Coexisting –Comparative).
Context
The project studies the recent proliferation of fiction based on ethnic, cultural, or national identity as take-off points for imagining possible futures even if their locations of production are globally spread. While many of these have older histories, these fictions have come together in this decade as alternative visions of the future that are resistant to perceived colonial or neo-colonial hegemony and are read as new forms of self-assertion. No methodologies have been developed to study all these together as shared phenomena, and no theories exist that can even make sense of them as similar yet distinct phenomena. There have also been no attempts to understand the specific sources for these futures in terms of the kinds of scientific and technological developments they project and the societal developments they imagine as localized responses to global challenges. This is the COFUTURES aim.

SummaryOur understanding of the neural basis of human cognition and its relation to behaviour is limited by the extent to which we can observe its underlying components. Neural activity elicited by a given stimulus can be decomposed in parallel threads of cognitive computation, each specialising on a different aspect of the stimulus. Conventional methods are fundamentally limited to tease apart these components within the stimulus-specific brain activity, therefore obscuring our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. I will build a framework to distil these threads by modelling their (trial-by-trial) distinct spatiotemporal trajectories and the interaction between them. Furthermore, I propose that the way our brains process stimuli, and in particular how these different components organise and relate to each other, can be critical to characterise subjects at the psychological and clinical level. However, it is unclear how to relate these complex models of stimulus processing to the subject phenotypes. I will develop principled algorithms to automatically discover which specific aspects of the modelled brain activity are most relevant to the traits under study. In summary, this multidisciplinary project brings together modelling and prediction across different data modalities to offer a novel temporal analytic account of how different threads of brain activity give rise to cognition, and how the nature of these elements relates to population variability.
I will tackle three important questions that are representative of the addressed methodological challenges: in the study of decision-making, the relation between value representation, decision-formation and attention; in sleep research, which specific aspects of the sleep cycle are most altered in insomniacs; in the field of pain perception, the disambiguation of nociception and salience, and how these diverge in chronic pain. Despite diverse, these questions are conceptually linked by ideas presented here.

Our understanding of the neural basis of human cognition and its relation to behaviour is limited by the extent to which we can observe its underlying components. Neural activity elicited by a given stimulus can be decomposed in parallel threads of cognitive computation, each specialising on a different aspect of the stimulus. Conventional methods are fundamentally limited to tease apart these components within the stimulus-specific brain activity, therefore obscuring our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. I will build a framework to distil these threads by modelling their (trial-by-trial) distinct spatiotemporal trajectories and the interaction between them. Furthermore, I propose that the way our brains process stimuli, and in particular how these different components organise and relate to each other, can be critical to characterise subjects at the psychological and clinical level. However, it is unclear how to relate these complex models of stimulus processing to the subject phenotypes. I will develop principled algorithms to automatically discover which specific aspects of the modelled brain activity are most relevant to the traits under study. In summary, this multidisciplinary project brings together modelling and prediction across different data modalities to offer a novel temporal analytic account of how different threads of brain activity give rise to cognition, and how the nature of these elements relates to population variability.
I will tackle three important questions that are representative of the addressed methodological challenges: in the study of decision-making, the relation between value representation, decision-formation and attention; in sleep research, which specific aspects of the sleep cycle are most altered in insomniacs; in the field of pain perception, the disambiguation of nociception and salience, and how these diverge in chronic pain. Despite diverse, these questions are conceptually linked by ideas presented here.